Boy, I’m wondering if the sun will ever come out again! It’s been rainy, cold, and gloomy for days now. Fortunately, I have plenty to do indoors. In the morning, I take Sarge for his mile run alongside the solar golf cart and put out corn for the wild turkey flock that has shown up again. We’re trying to slowly lure them closer to the buildings for ease of feeding them in the winter so more survive. No, we don’t hunt them; we’re trying to build up the flock. But maybe one day. When I get back, I let the chickens out and feed them. All while the rain drips down my neck from the panels above. Ish!
Yesterday I cut the dry tops and roots off the rest of our onion crop. The onions were smaller than normal this year, due to the crazy weather and weed pressure. But I think they’re nice, anyway. The greenhouse is heated now, making sure our squash, stored out there for now, doesn’t freeze. It sure looks great, seeing all that bounty.
I’ve been working hard on getting tomato recipes canned up to save all those tomatoes we brought in. I feel we’re in for skyrocketing tomato products pretty soon as California and Florida growers are plowing under tons of tomatoes as there is no help to pick them and Mexican tomatoes (which constitute a big block of our tomatoes) are under the tariff. You say, “Well, I don’t eat many tomatoes, anyway.” But what about catsup, pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, barbecue sauce, etc.? Think about it. All will certainly go way up in price.
Yesterday, I canned 8 pints more of barbecue sauce and 27 half pints of salsa. Plus, two pints of tomato broth I use as a soup base. It’s all so yummy and I know what went into every bite! I also ran to Walmart as I’d bought a turkey for .84 a pound last week and I thought I’d pick up a couple more to can up. They were out of the .84 turkeys, but I got 2 Butterball turkeys for .97 a pound. One, I thawed out and am going to make a turkey dinner for us tonight, then can up the rest, including turkey broth from the bones. No, it isn’t organic. But it is cheap meat. I’m feeling like the chipmunks, rushing around, gathering all I can for winter. And beyond, if need be.
— Jackie
How to can a store bought turkey? Do you precook? Thaw, then can raw? I am not sure. Please advise.
I thaw it, make a regular turkey dinner (or not), then cut the meat off the bone into slices or chunks, big or small. I pack into half pint and pint jars, leaving an inch of headspace. I then fill the jars with broth or boiling water and chicken soup base or bouillon powder. They are pressure canned at 10 pounds for 75 minutes for the pints or half-pints. This is very handy!! I use it in all sorts of recipes from turkey salad, fajitas and turkey and gravy over biscuits to turkey pot pies (usually the half pints for this).
Lots of crop failures in the comments, and then some success. Goes to show you really need to put away your own seed, and put away a lot of it! A lot! And also proves you must put-up whatever abundance you have per year. You just cannot count on a crops success. This world is so unpredictable, no matter how you try. Some things I re-sowed 5 times to get to come up. I’ve worked so hard each year to keep my soil’s health. I think not rotating is what hurt this last garden. This was the year for tomatoes and beans, but didn’t pan out at all, here. No matter how I tried. Hubby was semi-retired, but is back to full time(age 70) in construction; our property taxes and insurance have sky-rocketed here in far north California. I have to stay out of the way and let decisions be made. Think I’ll just keep canning. Yes, it is year ’round!! Keep trusting God. Lack has a way of making you do so.
Yes, keep canning and socking away seeds. They’re more valuable than gold in many instances!!! And no, you sure can’t count on what will grow and what may fail next year or the year after that. For instance, if you can 52 pints of green beans one year, it seems like a lot. Until you do the math. That’s only one meal or recipe with green beans in it a week. Then they’ll be gone. So, if next year’s garden fails, you’re out. Something to think about if you want to be food-secure.
Yep, trust in God. But also keep on working hard. He values that!
During 2020, instead of farmers in south Oregon and north California destroying their crops, they took them to churches to give away freely. I was one of the recipients several times, and I did a lot of experimenting, like dehydrating onions, potatoes, and apples. There was so much!
I think big ag is purposefully being destructive in order to cause as much drama as possible against our new administration in D. C.
Better to act righteously.
That’s wonderful they did that. Those tomato farmers just had nobody to pick the tomatoes. Unlike potatoes and onions, you can’t harvest them with machines. It takes people. Unfortunately, most Americans today don’t want to do that backbreaking work. That becomes a problem. A big one. I totally understand. Several times I’ve had a huge crop of tomatoes with a frost coming on that I couldn’t pick. I had already stacked dozens of crates I’d picked. I made several phone calls, trying to find someone who would come pick tomatoes to take home for themselves for free. Lots of excuses and “are they picked”, but not one person showed up. So sad!! And I sure wasn’t wanting to cause drama!! I just hoped they wouldn’t go to waste.
Oh thanks for mentioning the turkey prices. I think I better do that too. Never hurts to have canned meat. I did not know either about the tomatoes being plowed under. How wasteful but you can’t make people work. I love all the squash you have!! so many pretty colors.
Yes, that really hurts to see all those tomatoes plowed under. The farmers lost thousands due to that. There were acres of plastic mulch layed down and thousands upon thousands of plants planted that either had to be raised or bought, gallons of fuel used to plant….and plow up. As small farmers, we sure understand that.
We love squash so much, both for their beauty and wonderful flavors.
Beautiful picture of your colorful harvest. I love your saying that God is your gardening partner. I feel the same way. He always manages to have an abundant harvest of something in our garden, despite the crazy weather. We have had a very dry year here in North Florida. Some crops did not do well. My Seminole pumpkins, lima beans and field peas thrived, however. And I am overwhelmed with extra large luffa gourds. I guess we will be well fed and well scrubbed. :)
Yep, I had to laugh at being well fed and scrubbed!! We say God is our gardening partner as when we work hard, we always see the work of His hand in the harvest. I hate it when folks get lazy and say “oh, I don’t do all that work gardening. God will take care of us.” What a cop-out. I’ll bet God sure gets mad and disappointed to hear that refrain.
Our peppers did poorly this year, but our onions were spectacular! Ruby Reds, Clear Dawn, and Yellow of Parma. I also plant a bunch of potato onions. They’re small and somewhat annoying to peel, but I usually use those for drying and onion powder.
We had very little rain in August and September so some of the crops suffered for that, unfortunately that included our butternut squash, our favorite. It also affected the fall leaf color, which was not at all as beautiful as usual, a pity for all the leaf peeper tourists.
We grow potatoes every year, but this was the first time the potato beetles found us. I sprayed with spinosad, but probably noticed the infestation a bit late, as some of the plants were already damaged
Yep, we had the drought. And the rain. And the potato beetles. Luckily, we noticed them right away and got them sprayed with Bt. I only had to spray twice and that was that. Thankfully!!
On our drive from Grand Rapids MN to Duluth today we drove in snow showers most of the way. Winter is definitely approaching fast.
Oh my! When we woke up to snow, we were a bit surprised. Fortunately, it quit then warmed slowly up. Today, it’s 60 degrees F out and sunny. Probably the last day of that though…..
I suspect that potatoes are gonna go through the roof this year. My crop was mostly a dud, because of the crazy weather. I had planned on getting a couple of bags on my trip to Wisconsin last week, but even the 64,000 acre farm that I usually get them from had none available. Even the usually parking lot stands in central Wisconsin were nonexistent.
Oh boy, that’s sad. We were so thankful to get so many nice potatoes as we sure didn’t take good care of them, except Will weeded and hilled them twice then weeded them until the blooms dropped. No watering but for God. I can’t believe you couldn’t get some at that big farm in Wisconsin. That’s scary. Stop out. I have some you can have.
Here in the Copper Basin, Alaska the rain stopped and the ground and puddles are frozen. My total output from 24 tomato plants was fresh eating and six pints of chilli sauce. Not sure I had a plant disease or just picked the wrong varieties. Had the most peppers ever and our onion crop was the best ever. Did fair on beets and the cole crops did good. Carrots a bit small but considering how late things went in because of the build up off horse tail and fire weed risomes I had to dig out a little at a time last spring.in a bind those turkeys in the yard are meat if you are hungry which you folks obviously aren’t! Hope the weather cooperates with you.
Yep, those wild turkeys can certainly be looked upon as future meat, if need be. One reason we’re trying to build up the flock’s numbers every year. It’s funny; our peppers were so-so, the onions okay as are the carrots. Tomatoes were great and cole crops pretty good too. Strange year!!
Having a good personal supply of food is good planning. I see lines of government workers lining up for food. Yes they are plowing under tomatoes and other vegetables-no one available to harvest the crop. I like some rain days to catch up on indoor projects. We’ve been short on rain. Tonight we’re expecting a hard frost. I covered my late beets and carrots. There isn’t much left to harvest except our field corn. The price of any equipment prices have gone way up. I’ve had no luck bow hunting so far. Fall leaning into winter
Our rains haven’t meant much, other than reducing fire danger as we’re not getting much more than a constant drizzle. Yep, the rain lets me do more inside, which I sure need to do. Our weather’s been cold at night, needing a heater on in the hoop houses and greenhouse to protect the harvest and still-growing peppers. It snowed this morning!!
I love the pictures of the white squashes and orange pumpkins in your green house. I just love fall anyway. These guys just look so “autumn”, and I know they taste great, too. I am going to can up another box of tomatoes this week. I agree that they are always used up. Tomorrow I will be canning mustard greens. There are collard greens, & turnip greens, but the mustard greens are my favorite. Hopefully, I can fry up some turnips for supper. They are just as good as fried potatoes. It seems like canning is a year around project!
Yes, canning is a year around project for me too. I laugh when folks get done with the garden in the fall then say “I’m all done canning for the year.”. Ha ha! I can’t think of a single week I’m not canning something. Will and I went to town today to get some tractor parts and dog food. I also bought two more frozen turkeys at Walmart for .84 a pound. Jennie-O too. That’ll be a lot of turkey dinners, turkey potpie, turkey and gravy over biscuits, turkey chow mein, turkey noodle soup…. and so on. Cheap meat!
Yes a lot of crops will just be tilled under. Too bad there isn’t someone organizing like during Covid-19 (I’m think of you potato guy) whereby some of the crops could be picked by those so motivated.
Turkey is a good bang for your buck. Yes, we too could harvest turkey or deer is push came to shove.
While the price of beef may be high, it isn’t due to our American farmers. When the store can sell 2.3 lbs of Angus rib-eye steaks for $22 less than the original price, the price is a bit inflated IMHO.
Garlic we planted popped up a bit (not too much however), soon I’ll be putting down straw. Just enough to cover but not smother. For the first time this fall, temp *might* get down to 31 (like 6 am). We’ve had no frost nor anything close to a freeze.
While you probably already have, you might think of laying in a supply of dog/cat food. Nice that the bags have best used by dates.
Just love your picture of the Lakota Squash. That’s one that does well here in Central Kansas. This year was Triple digits in June for 3 weeks. Then 65 highs for 2 weeks and my seeds ( raised bed gardening) did well. I have
That Lakota in a big round bed and it’s producing and even very green robust leaves in this crazy weather. Tomatoes are loaded and still blooming. Amazing. Your seeds are what it takes for success in Kansas thanks again.
I’m so glad our seeds are doing their thing for you! I love Lakota squash too. Such thick meat. I’m about done with tomatoes, thank God, but I sure got a lot out of those crates. Yum!!
Those squash are huge! You have amazing gardens, a reward for all your family’s hard work!
It’s all that poo poo! It sure makes a big difference in the size and quantity of crops.
I’ve bought poo-poo each year as a garden amendment, but then heard Deep South Homestead say that doing so yielded such poor results he’ll never do it again, and will now only use his cattle’s. My husband said that boughten poo-poo is so sterilized, and thus rendered nutritionless for the garden; great scot, all this time I’ve used it! Will have to buy from a farm that doesn’t use grazon/round up, but have no way to transport. Another chance to depend on God.
A treasure cave disguised as a greenhouse! Beautiful stuff in there and proof of all your hard work. :)
I was listening to the Walmart CEO on one of the financial shows this week and his interviewer said he had heard that this was going to be an expensive Thanksgiving dinner this year. The CEO said that to the contrary it was going to be much better, especially turkeys. The prices of those were going to be down around what they were in 2019. Your purchases are the first evidence I’ve heard that the CEO might be right.
I was shocked and got two more for .84 a pound today. Jennie-Os too. The one we ate last night (started eating on!) was juicy, tender and a very nice bird, especially for the price. I think everything else will be sky high.
We’ve never been disappointed with Butter Ball or Jennie-O. What matters is the frozen turkeys are properly handled so they don’t thaw then freeze again.
What size are you finding?
Most are in the 16-20 pound size I cooked one up and it was wonderful.
Your squash and other bounty looks amazing! Thanks to the squash vine borer I only got one winter squash, a c.moschata which can handle insect pressure better. But since it was almost 5 feet long & weighed 21 pounds, I’m grateful to God for it. Diversity is important in the garden, if all squash were c.pepo, or all apple trees gala, or all of any veg or fruit one variety what would happen? As always Jackie, thank you for taking the time to share your life with us! Peace to all!
And thanks for sharing with us, Vicki! We’ve had folks have good luck with squash vine borers by planting Gueramon Martinique. Several people have told us that. Yep, diversity is the key to life. It keeps us all going. Mono-anything spells trouble. Just look at the Irish potato famine. All one variety of potato and all susceptible to the blight.
Thanks for that good word, Jackie. I’m willing to learn.
Beautiful harvest! Hoping today gives you a few glimpses of sun. Today in Ely we are switching between sunshine and snow showers. EW.. not ready for that yet.
Yep, it was snowing hard here this morning. Then rain. We were happy to finally see the sun, right before dark. No, we’re not ready for winter yet, either.
Once my larder was back in shape and totally organized from the fire down there, and my husband had painted shelving, I did an inventory and was amazed. Sometimes I go down just to admire all the hard work, though my security remains in my Source, the Lord. So I know how you feel, Jackie as you admire your goodies in the greenhouse! Yes, it is beautiful.
Hey, God is our gardening partner and I tell everyone that. He got us through drought, too much rain and freezing spring and fall and still we brought in a wonderful harvest. We do all we can and He does the rest.
Your squash are so beautiful.
I’ve been admiring all the different shapes and colors of squash in the stores and markets. I would love to put out a fall display of them. But my budget doesn’t allow for non edible purchases, and no one I’ve asked can tell me if the are. (A few said not.) I would think the squash family was all edible, but can’t afford to take chances.
If you google edible decorative squash and gourds you can get a lot of information.
Yes, the whole domestic squash family, including pumpkins of all sizes, colors and shapes, are definitely edible. The only ones we don’t like are acorn squash and Atlantic Giant pumpkins (which seem watery to us). But they are definitely edible and I’ve canned up both of them too. We now have found better tasting varieties to eat that are still beautiful.
What are some of your plans for this year’s squash besides storing some, and canning? Is drying feasible?
I’ll be canning some, eating a lot through the winter and also dehydrating. I use a lot of dehydrated squash, even ground up and added to multi-grain breads. I dehydrate it in smallish slices and it dries down very nice.